The U.N. nuclear agency said Wednesday it is "increasingly concerned" about a stream of intelligence information suggesting that Iran continues to work secretly on developing a nuclear payload for a missile and other components of a nuclear weapons program.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said "many member states" are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, "extensive and comprehensive."

Israel will not apologize for its deadly 2010 raid on a Turkish-led flotilla of Gaza aid ships, an Israeli diplomatic source said Friday after a U.N. report accused the Jewish state of using excessive force.

"Israel once again expresses its regrets for the loss of human life but there will be no apology for this operation," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

President Bashar Assad's regime faced fresh European Union sanctions targeting its oil exports Friday as ministers from the 27-nation bloc gathered in Poland to discuss the turmoil in Syria.

The sanctions "will go straight to the heart of the regime", said Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal.

Fourteen people were killed on Friday in demonstrations in several Syrian cities that took place under the banner of “Death Rather than Humiliation.”

Local Coordination Committees (LCC) announced via internet sites that seven people were shot dead by Syrian security forces in the region of Reef Damascus and three were killed in the province of Deir al-Zour.

Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara on Friday and suspended all military ties with its one-time ally after a U.N. report condemned excessive force used by Israel on a Gaza aid flotilla.

"At this point the measures we are taking are: The relations between Turkey and Israel will be downgraded to second secretary level. All officials over the level of second secretary, primarily the ambassador, will turn back to their country at the latest on Wednesday," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference.

Bahrain's interior ministry on Friday denied reports that police shot dead a Shiite teenager taking part in a protest two days ago and offered a $26,500 reward for information about his killers.

"The ministry expresses regret over various statements issued by certain political and human rights organizations" claiming that Ali Jawad Ahmed al-Sheikh's death "resulted from a police tear gas projectile shot at his face."

Israeli activists have called for a "demonstration of one million" people as part of their ongoing protest movement against rising costs of living in the Jewish state, organizers said Friday.

It will be held Saturday evening across Israel, the organizers said.

Israel will accept the United Nations report on its deadly attack last year on a Turkish-led flotilla of aid boats for the Gaza Strip with some reservations, a senior official said Friday.

"We will announce our acceptance of the report after its official publication, with specific reservations," the official who declined to be identified told Agence France Presse.

A council tasked with drafting a constitution for Libya should be elected within eight months ahead of presidential and legislative polls in early 2013, a rebel leadership official said Friday.

"We have outlined a clear road plan, a transition period of about 20 months," Guma al-Gamaty, the National Transitional Council's representative in Britain, told BBC radio.

Turkey and Iran have not done enough to protect civilians while carrying out strikes against Kurdish separatists in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

"The evidence suggests that Turkey and Iran are not doing what they need to do to make sure their attacks have a minimum impact on civilians, and in the case of Iran, it is at least quite possibly deliberately targeting civilians," Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East director, said in a statement on Friday.